The organiser of the 2021 pro-Palestinian convoy which saw some demonstrators drive through Jewish areas screaming antisemitic abuse, including calls for rape, is planning a new protest on Saturday, the JC can reveal.
Flyers and social media posts advertising both the earlier and current events bear the logos of 1Vision and Convoy4Palestine, groups in which Bradford activist Razaq Hussain plays a central role. They also include his phone number.
There is no suggestion that he was involved in any way with the earlier abuse and Hussain requested there be no violence at the next protest. But the disclosure that a new convoy is being planned has added to the pressure on Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to ask the government to ban the “Million March for Palestine”, of which the convoy will form a part.
At a protest last weekend in Bradford, where the convoy is due to start, Hussain railed against Israel, which he termed “Zionist pigs” and urged his audience to “stick the middle finger up to the politicians” who stood by Israel.
Another speaker at the same event - which was also organised by Hussain, Convoy4Palestine and 1Vision - asked the crowd if they condemned the Hamas terror group that perpetrated the massacre of October 7. In reply, they shouted “no”!
A third speaker claimed Israel had known Hamas was about to attack and perpetrate atrocities but had deliberately failed to act, because this had given the Jewish state “an excuse to cause a genocide”.
The earlier convoy incident took place on 16 May 2021 during a previous bout of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Several groups of six or seven cars sporting Palestinian flags were driven from northern England to the heartland of north London’s Jewish community in Golders Green.
Witnesses said they honked their horns and shouted abuse at Jewish bystanders, with calls to “f*** the Jews, f*** all of them, f*** their mothers, rape their daughters and show your support for Palestine”.
Four men were later charged with using “threatening, abusive or insulting words, or behaviour, with intent, likely to stir up racial hatred”, but the cases were later dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.
In an interview with the JC earlier this year, Home Secretary Suella Braverman attacked this decision, saying: “When I think back to the anti-Israel convoy that drove through north London blasting antisemitic filth, it’s just outrageous that those people weren’t brought to justice. I think part of the reason for that was that police response just wasn’t quick enough.”
Suella Braverman (Photo: Getty)
Suella Braverman (Photo: Getty Images)
It may now fall to Braverman to ban the march and convoy planned for this Saturday, which also happens to be Armistice Day.
She has described previous protests since the current war started with the October 7 atrocities as “hate marches”, while Prime Minister Rishi has said he considers the plan to hold a huge demonstration on Armistice Day as “provocative and disrespectful”.
However, before Braverman can order a ban, the law says Rowley must first request it, and there is no sign he is likely to do so. On Friday he implicitly attacked her use of the phrase “hate march”, saying he thought she had “picked two words from the English language and strung them together” and that this was “not for me”.
The route shown on publicity material for both the 2021 and November 2023 convoys is the same, with Bradford as the starting point, and stops at Sheffield, Leicester Forest motorway services, and the London Gateway. For next Saturday participants are asked to “bring your own cars”.
Speaking at last Saturday’s meeting, Hussain told his audience that the Armistice Day protest would be “the big, big one”. He said there should be no violence or vandalism, because “smashing up places” would “make us no different to those Zionist pigs who are doing what they are doing in Gaza.”
Hussain told the JC: “I hold no hatred towards the Jewish people and I’ve always made clear I don’t approve of violence.
"I fully condemn what happened in 2021 and this time we are putting in extra security to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again. We are going there for peace and a ceasefire and we fully respect Armistice Day.”
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